I am packed and ready for my trip! http://journals.aol.com/
eynl/Happeningsduring
theairIbreathe/entries/982 I have to drop my canoe off at the launch site today at 3, will camp tonight and be on the water at 7am tomorrow morning. I am excited and ready for the 7 day paddle down the Chattahoochee. Should be back home July 2 and hopefully with lots of pictures. Wish me luck!
We returned last night from a trip to Hunting Island, Fripp Island and Hilton Head. It was nice to get away and spend a few days at the beach. I sought out this lighthouse and "dragged" everyone along with me to climb it on our first day there. It was built in 1873, is 132.5 feet tall and has 167 steps.
They tried to use "there's a fee" as a deterrent to go up it. Right. Needless to say, the money was given to the attendant and we were on our way. It was fun climbing the spiral staircase and looking at how the structure was built. 
Everyone seemed to enjoy the view from the top following the long haul up.
Should I say that after all this, I was the one not able to look down and actually had to lean against the lighthouse as I looked out onto the water. Why then, do I always seek out these lighthouses! lol 
The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.-- Barbara Hall, Northern Exposure, Rosebud, 1993
I awoke with this little fellow hanging outside my front door window. I had walked downstairs and caught the sight of him out of the corner of my eye. Ever get a feeling that someone is around and watching? :) Well, It let me get close enough to take a picture as he climbed on the bricks and basked in the sun. Pretty cool I thought.
Yesterday , Daniel invited his friend and mother to come hang out at the pool. We talked, laughed, swam and basked in the sun ourselves for about 4 hours. It was a fun afternoon that left me feeling a little worn out. Something I probably shouldn't have done on tennis night. But, we plan on having them over again next week. It's summer and I'm loving it. :)
I remember being 18 and trying to "find myself" and thought at the time I had everything figured out. Little did I know that it would take years before I looked back and realized that I like everyone else, made it through those times by trial and error. I enjoyed my newfound freedom that we think comes at the magical age of 18. I worked, studied and even took a summer just traveling the east coast. If you told me I couldn't do something, then the next thing you know I was doing it. My daughter is now at this age and I'll be watching closely at her choices even though at a distance. And it has already started. A week after graduation, she decided to pierce her nose. She told me hours before she was going to do it, which is more than I did at her age with different things. I remember secretly piercing my ears for the first time at 16 when I was suppose to wait till 18. (Yes, times have changed) This little diamond on her nose will not scar if she takes it out some day, but I see how like myself, she needed to express herself. I'm sure by the time she's a doctor, that little piercing will be out of there. One can only hope.
"I was, I realized, terrified of what was going on inside him, his monkness, the power of what had brought him to the abbey. If we were going to be together-and I wanted this now with something close to desperation-he would have to want it, too, in the same way he'd wanted God, and I didn't know if I could compete with that. "
The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd
The mermaid chair was this month's selection to read in our book club. It was quite the discussion last night. I enjoyed this book, it's symbolism and deep thoughts that the characters displayed. It inspired an earlier entry the other day in my journal that seems untouchable because of subject matter. Are we too afraid of true thoughts and feelings? This book was of a lady in midlife who questions her conventional life with her husband and falls in love with a monk who is soon to take his final vows. She is pulled in love between a newness and excitement and the ordinary life that she has made for herself. Losing her "self" throughout her 20 years of marriage inspires her yearning for a true soul mate.
Life can illuminates a woman's self-awakening if sometimes we forge straight on. This book is one that I would definitely recommend.
"But, I don't know what my cross is. Is it doing without her now that I've loved her? Or is it doing without the abbey? Or is it the peculiar agony of being spiritual and human at the same time. "
The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd
You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
-- Franz Kafka
This view out my window from my desk keeps me smiling each time I look up while sitting at my computer. This particular bird has steadily been at my feeder for over a month now. It comes alone and is different from the other birds in my garden. The Torenia hanging plant has brought humming birds as of late. They seemed to disregard the hummingbird feeders and prefer the real thing. I've had many finches, blue jays, cardinals and woodpeckers also flying around. The assortment has been plenty and I relish in seeing them clearly this year with my corrected vision. They bring a smile to my face each and every time. :)
June 25 —Day 1
17-mile tour of Buford Dam’s tailwaters, renowned as the southernmost trout waters in the U.S.—home to brooks, browns and rainbows. 50-degree water
June 26 —Day 2
14 miles through Atlanta’s backyard, the backyards of Atlanta’s upscale northern suburbs and country clubs where millionaires are almost as common as kingfishers. Here, the river offers more peaceful paddling, interspersed with a few lively shoals at Jones Bridge and Island Ford.
June 27 —Day 3
16 miles from Roswell to Peachtree Creek piercing Atlanta’s infamous perimeter highway and flowing through what is arguably the most beautiful stretch of the Chattahoochee’s 436-mile course through Georgia. Here, the Palisades’ high granite cliffs overlook playful Class I shoals. Day 3 also includes the trip’s only portage (a short one around Morgan Falls Dam).
June 28 —Day 4
15 miles from Peachtree Creek to Campbellton Road southwest of Atlanta. Class II rapid near the mouth of Peachtree Creek.
June 29 —Day 5
15-mile tour of mostly rural landscape along the Douglas/Fulton county line
June 30 It’s —Day 6 is a 15-mile tour through geological time. The Brevard Fault is the primary geological feature of the Chattahoochee through middle Georgia.
July 1 —The trip’s final day is the longest, but perhaps its most rewarding. The 20-mile paddle to Franklin takes you past Bushhead Shoals Islands (the river’s largest island complex), Daniel Shoals (the largest natural rapid ) and waterfalls at Hilly Mill and Redbone creeks.
It's amazing how we love.
At times I look beyond what I need to see and my answers are always the same. The love that surrounds us continues on with familiarity. We look, desire, and dream, but come back to the love that settles in just right. That all too familiar nestle on the shoulder that helps us drift off to sleep while dreaming of foreign territory, seems to fit in our world. The exciting love of long ago replaced by the comfort of that same love. Those same passions are not extinguished, yet on a different Plain.
I find myself this morning probably thinking too much, desiring too much and dreaming as I go about my day. I need to get my act together. :)
